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Now That He's Screwed Us For the 58th Time...

Welcome to Hope n' Change 2.0!

In the face of a collapsing economy, rampant unemployment, and global instability, Barack Hussein Obama took office in 2008 promising Hope and Change. The "Hope" thing didn't really work out, but we got plenty of "Change" as everything got worse. And now, the jug-eared jackass has a second term.

That's why at Hope n' Change Cartoons, we're creating conservative smartaleckry to provide a little laughter in these strange times. Cartoons will probably be posted Monday and Wednesday, and definitely on Friday. Additionally, cartoons and graphics will be posted randomly on our Facebook page and Friday we'll add the week's postings right here to kick around in one of the greatest comments sections on the Web.Note: please feel free to repost our cartoons on your favorite blogs!

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Wednesday, July 9, 2014

When it comes to putting one of the so-called Benghazi terrorist "masterminds" on trial, no one can question the importance of assigning the proceedings to an exceptionally well qualified judge with a long and solid track record on the bench.

Of course, that's only if you want a legitimate verdict rather than a show trial that's as staged as a sixth grade play.

While Hope n' Change is not usually averse to the idea of on-the-job training, we really prefer to see it in less critical situations than the highest profile terror trial of the century. Instead, start with something easy like brain surgery or piloting commercial jetliners.

Reassuringly, Cooper is described as "quite capable" (wow!) by a totally unbiased partner at his former law firm - who also happens to be his freaking father-in-law. And we assume that he is also considered "quite capable" by his wife, who - surprise! - worked at the Justice Department under Eric Holder.

And by an absolutely astounding coincidence, Cooper's college roommate just happened to be the brother of national security adviser Susan Rice - the woman whose most famous career achievement was lying her ass off about Benghazi.

Looking at all of the incestuous political connections, it would be easy
to come to the conclusion that this coordinated attack on the American jurisprudence system was carefully planned in advance by political radicals. But the Obama administration contends that this demonstration of "random" case assignment was entirely spontaneous.

Why did I anticipate this? Couldn't be because the DOJ and the Federal Bench is more corrupt than Tammany Hall. Is Eric the Unjust's old law firm providing the defense? I believe I read yesterday that the Federal Prosecutor's have muffed some of the arraignment and that a conviction wasn't going to be a slam dunk as the WH/MSM was making it out to be.

Palin and others lately have begun to shout the "I" word, but unfortunately I must disagree - without the Senate, it will go no where. I have to agree with Pat Buchanan - "With the economy shrinking 3 percent in the first quarter, with Obama sinking in public approval, and with the IRS, NSA and VA scandals bubbling, why would Republicans change the subject to impeachment? The effect would be to enrage and energize the Democratic base, bring out the African-American vote in force and cause the major media to charge the GOP with a racist scheme to discredit and destroy our first black president. Does the GOP really want a fight on that turf, when they currently hold the high ground? If you are winning an argument, why change the subject?" Better plan is to take the Senate, then cut the purse strings to all of this malarkey.

As far fetched as most would see this, I don't put anything past Jarrett and company to engineer an impeachment movement to do exactly as Buchanan predicted. Obama can't get re-elected, he is looking for his 'legacy', what better vehicle than to enrage the base, hold onto the Senate in 2014, and the Presidency in 2016. Though I don't think Shillary will run, you have to know that she is more a Progressive than Obama is - she's just better at covering it up, and then there's Princess Lie-a-watha, Sanders, and Cumo - all Progressives that will carry the torch for O - Biden? he's got more tire tracks on him than a CSI tire cast.

Oh - and now the EPA has decided they have the authority to garnish the private sector wages for anyone who incurs a fine - let the debtor prove he's innocent. What ever happened to "Innocent until proven guilty"?

Wow, each and every day a new outrage. Every day I wake up and feel that my life and the country have been sucked into some insane 8th dimensional version of a Kafka book, The Trial perhaps. As in Einstein's definition of insanity I keep waiting for at least a small portion of the media to do their job, and it doesn't happen. How far does it have to go before even a handful of the ink-stained wretches grows a conscience or a pair of balls?

@Grumpy Curmudgeon-I absolutely concur. Even though I firmly believe that impeachment is the least of the consequences this traitor should face, with no chance of success, a symbolic impeachment in the House would only rally and energize his base. I wouldn't be surprised however, never underestimate the Republican's natural tendency and proclivity to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Dang! I haven't been this surprised by something since I got up this morning and noticed my whiskers grew overnight, and I had to shave them. Quite a shocker! Damn!

Prediction.... this will end in either a mistrial, or the guy will get life in prison. .... a Libyan prison.

As far as the talk above about impeachment, I totally agree. This would be completely counterproductive, and O'Liar damn well knows it. I say let the turd continue down the road he's on. The asswipe probably thought all his BS would never catch up with him, but he was too self righteous to call it quits when he was still "The One." I fervently pray that when he finally moves his shit our of OUR White House, he is totally shamed and discredited.

It appears as though Cooper has far more experience in his profession than Øbama does in his. Perhaps he will consider throwing his hat in the ring come 2016. Meanwhile, the administration surges ever onward with it's step by step plays from the Cloward and Piven Handbook. The most recent divide and conquor ploy of allowing a massive influx of Hispanics to waltz across our border unchecked is somewhat perplexing. Granted these illegals will fortify the Democratic base and, in fact, are already recieving driver's lcenses in California towards that end; but historically Hispanics hate Blacks more than us racist Whites do. Does the playbook also then call for dividing the party that is putting so much effort into seeing it destructive results come to fruition?

@Geoff King: re: "...historically Hispanics hate Blacks"...and the reverse is true as well. The one thing (of many,many) the MSM misses is that there are just so many low-paying unskilled jobs available, so when Miguel the legal, running the leaf blower, earning $7/hr on the books (with his employer paying SS taxes)gets replaced by Juan the illegal, who'll work off the books and take $4/hr cash and a Chihuahua Burrito, 'ol Miguel get to go on unemployment/welfare.

Magnify that 600,000 times and you have fulfilled the Cloward-Piven maxim of overloading the system to cause massive economic upheaval leading to an overthrow of the system in favor for a Marxist/Socialist system.

Thanks for spreading the word. Just another big show produced by the left (progressives, Marxists, whatever) to convince the LoInfo folks that this administration is actually doing something productive. It boggles the mind.

Yeah, the lamont "administration" is more incestuous than a Kentucky hill country family reunion! "Is there a spine-donor in the house?!" When is this law-breaking bastard going to be held to account? Are ALL GOP reps eunuchs? AGAIN it appears that the only one with balls is SARAH PALIN!

@REM1875- No need to find a Sharia law judge; that'll be covered when the court fields a jury of "peers" for the trial - and makes sure an appropriate number of jurors are radical islamics.

@rickn80r- He's probably too busy writing his memoirs.

@Grumpy Curmudgeon- Nothing about Benghazi passes the smell test, including the timing of Khattala's arrest, the speed with which he was brought to the U.S., and now this laughable assignment of an Obama toady as judge. Top to bottom, it really is corrupt as hell.

Excellent points about the problems with impeachment. There's no "upside" for our side so we need to forget about it - no matter how richly justified it would be.

Regarding the EPA overreach, it fits the pattern with everything else they (and this administration) do.

@Quest Grande- Sadly, most people don't even know what happened in Benghazi. Fewer still will care about the irregularities cropping up with this suspect and his trial. For the majority of voters, the "best thing for the country" is to keep their goodies flowing.

@TrickyRicky- Your literary reference made me think of the phrase "turn your head and Kafka," though damned if I know what to do with it. Maybe it will eventually be the title of my autobiography.

But seriously, this is Kafkaesque in the extreme. We're living in topsy-turvy land.

Regarding the downsides of impeachment, we may see some of the same blowback from the threat to sue Obama. Between Democrat mendacity and Media complicity we're likely to see things twisted out of all recognition.

@Colby- I haven't decided yet if this judicial "fix" is intended to convict the guy (thereby showing that Big Balls Baracks bagged the right terrorist), or is intended to let the guy go (thereby showing radical Islamics that our system is "fair.")

One thing's for sure- the admissable evidence, the media coverage, and the eventual verdict will all be whatever Obama wants it to be.

@Geoff King- I have no doubt that Cooper is a better lawyer than Barry ever was (as evidenced by the fact that Cooper is still licensed to practice law, unlike the boy king).

And the border situation is a nightmare of deliberate making. Obama will be in my neck of the woods today in North Texas (I may stand in my yard giving the finger to the sky, in hopes that Barry will be looking down from Air Force One) to announced that he needs $3.7 Billion taxpayer dollars to (ahem) care for the new arrivals. That translates to $80,000 each - though in fairness, half of that will probably be spent on de-lousing.

@CenTexTim- I hope the filmmaker can take time off from shooting Hillary's 2016 campaign ads...

@Grumpy Curmudgeon- Good points. When someone "off the books" takes a job, someone "on the books" loses one. And I don't buy the whole notion that these people are simply taking "jobs that others won't do." Guess what - when free taxpayer money, food, housing, and phones stop being passed out, people will do those jobs.

@Stan da Man- Seriously, I think every voter in America should be forced to read "The Little Red Hen" which spreads that "no work / no food" message in terms that even generational Democrats can understand.

@Judi King- Truthfully, the blatant transparency of this farce depresses me. It's like the Obama administration isn't even trying to pretend they're legitimate anymore. And they're getting away with it.

Damn, Stilton! I didn't do the math. $80k each? So, I've spent the last 40-45 years approaching this "how do I support myself and my family" thing completely wrong. Got good grades in HS, studied my ass off in college while holding down a full time grunt job. Took an entry level job and spent 30± years working my way up to $70k a year.... all the while paying buttloads of taxes so Juan Valdez can walk across the border illegally in broad effing daylight, and make more than me (hypothetically).

Seriuosly, I heard that O'Liar's $3.7 billion is just a number he pulled out of his skinny butt, and there is absolutely no plan as to what to do with the money. It's just the typical libtard method of solving any and every problem; get a pile of cash and pay a bunch of "experts" to "think" about the problem. then the "experts" come up with a "plan" and ask Congress for about $70 billion to implement it. Then the $70B disperses God knows where. By then, there is some other national "crisis," so nobody even notices all the new billionaires that came from the previous crisis.

And the little Liar can't even be bothered to go to the border to see for himself. What a big man. I hope Rick Perry gives him a big wedgie, and physically boots him out of his office door. Now there's something I'd pay $3.7 billion to see.

Sigh...Another day, another scandal. As long as the majority of the people(god damned useful idiots)see no problem with this, there's nothing we can do to stop these collectivists bastards from further damaging the once great United States.

With all this law breaking and corruption it really screams volumes impeachment proceedings haven't begun. Screams what, you ask? We'll first, it's far more insulting to the One that his impeachment is NOT being actively sought. It suggests the patronizing belief (on the parts of both parties in Congress and the voters who support this idiot) that he's an affirmative action hire who warrants a bunch of mulligans because he's such an eff up. Secondly, it indicates some members of Congress have incriminating stuff in files the WH has. Pro'ly both.

I do wonder if Mr. Jarlsburg will be enough of a snivelling baby to close the comments for this thing after he realises he's dead wrong and too scared to admit it.

Lets try.

Now, while I'm sure the Obama administration would like someone on this trial as accomplished and morally upstanding as Darell Issa, known arsonist, insurance scammer and car thief, they will have to make do with a man who was partner of one of the nations leading law firms from 1996 to 2012, and was president of the Stanford Law Review.

@Pamecon: Is this the new thing Republicans are going to try? "The reason people don't think our extremely minor things we keep saying are the WORST SCANDALS EVER are reasons for impeachment? Must be reverse racism!"

Tell you what - if Obama gets caught selling Iranian terrorist groups thousands upon thousands of missiles, while explicitly being forbidden by an embargo, in exchange for money that is then funnelled directly to Nicaraguan rape squads that he is also forbidden from supporting, just like Reagan did and was never impeached for, you might have something that approaches a scandal. Til then, keep trying to inflate everything beyond any sane proportion to justify how much you scream "THE BLACK GUY IS THE WORST EVER!!"

@Anonymous: Actually only you have indicated a racial bent in your rant therefore you must be a RACIST - frankly I don't give a d*** if he's black, white or green - he's still the most unqualified narcissist megalomaniac that LIV's ever put into office. My personal choice prior was Nixon, for some extremely personal reasons.

@Grumpy Curmudgeon: Ah, that old Republican standard - pointing out that I'm a racist is RACIST!!!!

Yep, despite all evidence to the contrary, he sure does adhere to all those racist stereotypes, huh? It sure is amazing how narcissistic - one might almost say "uppity" - he is, how megalomaniacal - one might almost say "thuggish" - he is, how unqualified - one might almost say "stupid" - he is, which is sure how a racist would of course instantly stereotype the first African American president the day he took office and never once change his tune for a second. So its such a coincidence that he is those things, and thats not the ravings of a racist who won't even admit to himself he's a racist.

@ The previous poster who is afraid to give his name: Calling Barack Hussein Øbama black is an insult to all African Americans, and may be the most racist thing I have heard. He is more white than black. His father is mostly Arab. In fact the only black blood his father has is a great grandparent, on his mother's side. Thats Obama's great-great grandparent. That makes Obama 1/2 caucasion, 7/16th Arab and a mere 1/16 black. Actually, as Arabs are considered a caucasion race, he is really 15/16th White.To be legally recognized as a minority in this country you must be at least 1/8th the enthnicity in question. Even in Kenya, Obama's father is leagally recognized as "Arab African.Of course that is all assuming he is who he says he is and his parents are who they say they are. Now, if you choose to claim he faked his birth certificate and his parents were other than who he says they were, you may be better able to support your racial slur of calling him a black man.

Anonymous,O'Liar's "blackness" is not relevant. His disdain for his own country is the issue, and that is the discussion here on Hope'n'Change on a daily basis, not O'Liar's skin color! The only time I see skin color mentioned here is in moonbat "hit and runs" by Chris Matthews wanna-bees.

I can't speak for anyone else on this blog, but I'll bet my next paycheck most agree. I could give a rat's ass what color O'Liar is. He is still a liar, and a criminal who has totally disregarded his oath to uphold the Constitution and "Faithfully execute the law." He swore to do just that in front of billions of people... twice.... total disregard... total failure.... total liar.

Dittos to everyone except "anonymous" who is an obvious left wing plant. The narcissistic, egomaniac in the WH is guilty of so many things that it's hard to remember them all. And, as Geoff said, he has only a fraction of Negro blood. To be labeled a racist because of opposition to this man is an insult to everyone's intelligence when there are so many ligitament reasons for opposition, not to mention impeachment.

Anon - "the day he took office"? puh-LEEZE.. I've been against him long before that. Remember when he was talking to Joe the Plumber, and admitted that his tax policies were NOT meant to enhance revenue, but instead to 'redistribute wealth'Funny thing, tho, he never suggested taxing "wealth" only "income" (I realize the distinction is not obvious to all, but it IS significant). In either event, he revealed himself as being dyed in the wool commie, and I've been hard set against him since. At least. You see, it's not the darkness of his skin that bothers me nearly so much as the pinkness of his policies... Besides, if we let color of skin color our judgement, how do you explain our fondness for conservative dark skinned people - Condi Rice, Thomas Sowell, Clarence Thomas, Allen West, Herman Cain, Ben Carson... Typical response is that they're "just Uncle Toms"... because they don't act the way black people are "supposed" to... Hmmm, "proper" behavior based on skin color? THAT's surely not racist...

As far as Reagan goes, what the EFF is your point? No one ever said he was a perfect President (and by the way, many of us have the same issues w/ W - crazy spending, stupid illegal immigration policies, etc - that we have w/ Obama, so that gets no traction here either) and even if anyone HAD said Regan was perfect, So the FRIK **what**?? How is that in ANY way relevant? You are perhaps conceding that Obama is the worst president EVER, but oh, this other guy had issues too? Logical fallacy of the first water, known as "look, Squirrel" I believe. So, until you can string together two coherent thoughts in a way that actually resembles logical progression, I think I'll just invite you to Have a *nice* day, someplace else.

BTW. I and my sister Judi who also posts on here are approximately 1/16th Lakota Indian, but you do not see us claiming to be Native American, nor are we even close to recieving any government benefits for being so. However, we have exactly as much right to call ourselves Sioux Indian as our illustrious leader has in calling himself Black.

@Anonymous: When one is attempting to replace clinical definitions, it might help you to refer to the terminology in the DRG manual. Multiple Behavioral Health Professionals have assessed the multiple personality disorders from daily observation of his actions, speech and behavior over numerous years, the original published in 2007. The more cautious/kindly diagnoses were of narcissism and megalomania, while others added the sociopathic and psychopathic from observed traits.

Not that it matters from your trollistic view, but I'm an Independent, married to a BHP with 30+ years of behavioral health diagnostic assessment experience.

Off the Troll hammering and back on topic - watched The Lightgiver's Constitutional Professor moment last evening, then watched Gov. Perry's take on his conversation (which surprisingly did not resemble what Obama choose to remember (Duh!). Gov. Perry pointed out 3 basic facts: 1) The Border Patrol had set up 'checkpoints' 46 miles from the border (that by my conservative calculation allows the illegals 55,200 square miles to cavort in). That's apprehension not prevention, stop then from crossing the border - 'humanitarian crises' solved. 2) Less than $100M of the requested $3B will go towards border security. and 3) Obama has the tools he needs right now to move 3200 National Guard to the border - all he has to do is tell Congress it's a National Security Issue (which many LEO's and Military agree it is), and it's his duty under the Constitution to provide for the National Defense. Same for the exception to the 2008 law (which was never intended for this situation), he can claim National Security and bypass the loophole provision now, while Congress enacts legislation to close the loophole.

BUT, where have we seen this indecision before - the Libyan and Syrian crises where he had the authority to act, but it would make it unpopular to his left wing base, so he punted it to Congress to take the blame.

@Readers- Sorry about the race-obsessed troll. He/she/it is in a dither because I closed comments on Monday's post after things had devolved and the rest of us had moved on to today's post. If I really wanted one-on-one time with a troll, I'd spend more time hanging out under bridges.

Getting back to saliency, newly-minted Judge Cooper should recuse himself from the terror trial but won't.

And regarding the border situation, Barry has already done all that he can: he traveled to Texas so that with his own eyes he could see rooms filled with (in Nancy Pelosi's words) a "dazzling, sparkling, array of God's children (that) we respect for their worth."

Of course, in this case everyone in the room was a fat cat Democratic donor. Barry couldn't care less about mingling with disease-ridden children lured here by his promises of free ice cream.

And no, what I was doing is showing you what a real scandal looks like. Iran Contra was a real scandal - the President directly and knowingly supported rape squads that were supposed to undermine democracy, and did so by selling WMD's to terrorist groups. Watergate was a real scandal. The monumental fuckup that was Katrina was a real scandal.

Letting a man who tried to smuggle weapons into Mexico serve out his prison sentence is not a scandal. Investing in American businesses only to have the Chinese force the company out of the market through unethical business procedures is not a scandal. A sting operation going bad due to a failure of equipment is not a scandal. A terrorist attack that had no forewarning and was ignited by an insensitive video is not a scandal. The IRS applying scrutiny to both conservative and liberal groups requesting tax exempt status is not a scandal. Letting non-white people actually get something back for their tax dollars is not a scandal.

The only people who could think these things are scandals are people who are committed to having something, anything to tar this president with. Now, you may not be doing this because you're a racist. You may just be a partisan hack of the highest order and just can't accept that your side lost twice. But judging by your other comments, I'd go with both.

@Geoff: I don't quite know whats more bizarre here - claiming that racism is totally something based on a logical calculation of a persons bloodlines, or claiming that Barack Obama I was mostly Arabic, despite his parents both belonging to the Luo people.

@Curmudgeon: No, the most cautious say "of course there's nothing wrong with him, you morons. What are you trying to prove?" The ones motivated by partisan hatred (see Pete, above) will of course let this irrational hatred make them pick up on natural everyday things and point to them as symptoms of generic bad things. Much in the same way a hypochondriac would self diagnose, the need to find symptoms makes those symptoms become evident, and of course you can make these imagined symptoms add up to anything.

But as you are a partisan hack, you will of course go with the "I'm not crazy. HE'S THE ONE WHO'S CRAZY!! LOOK HOW HE BLINKS LIKE THAT - THE CRAZY!!!"

"Though liberals do a great deal of talking about hearing other points of view, it sometimes shocks them to learn that there are other points of view. I would like to take you seriously but to do so would affront your intelligence." - William F Buckley Jr.

Prepositioned talking points, imbedded by your handlers, negates any possibility that your neural syntax's actually fire and that you might have an original thought. Troll on Wayward Son, your such the silly ass - hasn't anyone told you?

@Curmudgeon: So you're projecting your own stubbornness and inability to consider other points of view onto me as an attempt at an argument?

Well, we can easily find out which is the actual grouping that cannot handle any new ideas - which are the progressives, i.e. the people who actually seek out new ideas, consider them, and if they work adopt them, trying to change the world with them? And which side are the regressives, i.e. saying everything has worked the way it always has, and if you try to change the world in any way, we will scream at you forever about how you're a socialist and should be killed?

Basically, which side has new ideas, and which side just keeps screaming small government, no new laws, no new taxes, no new rights, and no new infrastructure - basically, "no new ideas"?

@Anonymous- Wait, your authority on racial authenticity is a cartoonist?! I had no idea you put those of us in the profession on such a high pedestal!

So since you obviously place a high value on my opinions, here are some more for you...

"Iran Contra was a real scandal"Yep, it was. And it was treated as such.

"Watergate was a real scandal."While less serious than the IRS scandal, it was definitely the real deal. And a president was tossed out of office for it.

"The monumental fuckup that was Katrina was a real scandal."It sure was - only the most scandalous bits really are the fault of the Democrats in Louisiana who so royally screwed everything up - including Ray "Chocolate City" Nagin, who was just convicted of multiple crimes and sentenced to prison.

"Letting a man who tried to smuggle weapons into Mexico serve out his prison sentence is not a scandal."Smuggle weapons? It's not like the guy was towing a trailer stuffed with crates of guns and stinger missiles - he took a wrong turn while driving a vehicle with all of his worldy possessions including 3 legally purchased firearms. Not exactly a gunrunner like, oh, Barry and Eric.

"Investing in American businesses only to have the Chinese force the company out of the market through unethical business procedures is not a scandal."I assume you're referring to Solyndra. And yes, it's a scandal when everyone knows beforehand that the (ahem) "loan" is going to go bad and the company is going to go under, but it's rushed through anyway to provide a renewable energy talking point for B. Hussein.

"A sting operation going bad due to a failure of equipment is not a scandal."An equipment failure? The guns weren't even being tracked. The whole Fast & Furious program was intended to find American-sold guns at violent crime scenes in order to bolster the call for more gun control laws.

"A terrorist attack that had no forewarning and was ignited by an insensitive video is not a scandal."Right - no forewarning. Other than every other embassy getting the hell out of dodge because of all the mounting violence, Chris Stevens begging for additional security, and the rather predictable occurrence of the anniversary of freaking 9/11.

"The IRS applying scrutiny to both conservative and liberal groups requesting tax exempt status is not a scandal."But the IRS didn't apply the same scrutiny, even remotely. It was a flat out attack on conservative Americans to restrict their free speech. And the whole "missing emails" situation only gets worse the more we learn.

"Letting non-white people actually get something back for their tax dollars is not a scandal."Aaaaand you're back to race when no one else is talking about it. Moreover, I'm not actually sure what in the living hell you're talking about with that statement.

Not that I want you to explain your ugly race fantasies. That should be restricted to couch time with your Obamacare-funded mental health professional.

An old cowboy, an Indian Chief, and an illegal alien sat around the campfire. The Indian Chief lamented "Once we were many, now we are few". The illegal alien said "Man, once we were few but now we become many!'.

The old cowboy looked at the alien and said "We ain't played Cowboys and Aliens yet."

Um .... didn't read everything but noticed that there was some ugly little pus-infested troll who somehow wants to negate the unconstitutional crimes of the current president but somehow bringing up past grievances. I may not have read his ramblings properly.Apparently in his moldy little mind, two wrongs make a right, even if you can only make-up past "wrongs". As a poor, simple-minded soul, it is so very hard for me to understand the left, except in terms of thieves, rapist and murders - they will attempt to lie their way out of crimes they commit - and in the case of the rapist in the white house, his crime is subversion of the Constitution. The progressives are enemies.... and need to be treated as such.

You're right, I'm policy biased. LOVE freedom, HATE communism. Last 'progressive' ideas that EVER worked were public libraries, and forced inoculation - only now, that's become a 'progressive' cause celeb, and increasingly a fail. What else we got? War on poverty? $7T later, more poor (even by %, much less by raw numbers) than ever. - FAILPublic Education - arguably, it used to be one of the best systems. Then the "progressives" took it over, and in Detroit, of the 25% who DO manage to "graduate" 1/2 are functionally illiterate, barely able to read / write their own NAME - FAIL"Progressive" taxation? worsens the income inequality gap, makes it difficult for the poor to become middle class, and nearly impossible for THEM to become "rich", AND reducing revenue, compared to other form of taxation - FAIL (also - highest biz tax rates of any developed nation, driving away businesses - FAIL) Human driven climate change - FAIL.ObamaCare, costing the people who pay (pretty much the same ones who always have) 2x as much as ever, for crappier care, ASSUMING they can find a Dr to see - FAILPlease, tell us, what "carefully considered" progressive idea has EVER done ANYTHING other than wast $$$, funnel $$$ back to pols, and increase the public's dependency on Gov't - yes, THAT they're good at...

@Pete(Detroit)- Very well put. I had to laugh at the definition of progressives as "people who actually seek out new ideas, consider them, and if they work adopt them." All of which is true except for the part about the ideas being new, being well considered, or actually working. Ever.

Progressives are ignorant, utopian-fetishists who have no knowledge of history, what works and what doesn't. It is great and important to try and experiment as Hayek noted, but progressives fancy themselves like a masturbatory teenagers. Having completely ignored their lessons, they think they know it all and in fact know nothing. They will destroy us in their ignorance. They have no respect for the rule of law, they have no respect for individuals rights, they have no respect for anything but their genitalia in the minds.

@Stilton: Applying word balloons to stock images and photos doesn't make you a cartoonist. It makes you a completely talentless hack who needs to leach off the ideas of others, applying the same recycled Republican talking points over and over in an attempt to scrounge up reposts from idiots.

I do like how we're supposed to believe you can "accidentally" drive to Mexico. There's so much ambiguity in a sign that says "YOU ARE NOW LEAVING US SOIL AND ENTERING MEXICO" - why, it could mean he was entering a Taco Bell.

Also how a business that only failed because the chinese outdid the US's contribution to a solar energy company 10 to 1 in an effort to claim the market for themselves was just doomed from the start.

Been reading more of those Republican talking point sites, have you? See, in reality, the guns did have GPS trackers on them, but the batteries failed. But I do love how, from absolutely, positively nothing whatsoever - Republicans have managed to create a talking point about how an operation to track down and stop drug Cartels, was ACTUALLy all about AR GUNS!!! You know, the ones Barack Obama never said a single word about restricting until 20 children were shot dead with a legally obtained rifle in Conneticut.

The mounting evidence being the riots starting across the territories because of the Anti-Muslim video that you say had nothing whatsoever to do with the attacks? The requests for additional security that were ignored by Congressional Republicans who wanted to cut more from the budget? And ah yes, the anniversary of 9/11, a date that had had no incidents occurring related to it in the past 10 years, indicating that, gee, maybe terrorists don't work like Jason Voorhes and only attack on one specific day.

Though I do seem to recall another President ignoring mountains of evidence of an attack happening on a 9/11, but that one killed a few more than 4 people. Tell me, how many hearings were there over that, holding the President accountable?

@Curmudgeon: You know, if you want to pretend you're not a racist, try not to make a joke treating genocide of the native population as a punchline.

Don't believe anything I say - I am a progressive - I lie to achieve power so that I may tell you what to think and do. We were once called fascists, we were once called communists - we are now progressives. Why? Because you will believe anything. Look who you elected to the WH ... twice starting in 2008. He is one of us. He does what we tell him. As all good progressives do because progressive know not to think for themselves.

@Pete: Thank you for giving us a list of compromises where Progressives caved in to Regressive demands to lessen the scope, and the thing predictably went down. Now, I'd like to point you towards Sweden, where the Progressive ideas have been implemented, none of them watered down by screaming idiots wearing a tricorner hat, and their economy, health services and education are all running perfectly.

To the previous Anonymous, where everyone shares a homogenous culture with common values and a common heritage, so-called "progressives" ideas sometimes work just like they would in any ant colony - Sweden may be such an example. But Sweden is also not an economic powerhouse. And if the only thing you are after, as I suspect all progressives are, is for everyone to think the same way, Sweden might be good for that too.

But overall, I would not look to Sweden to make much of dent in an argument - and at any rate, we are a land of multiculturalism as you lefties like to promulgate - the only thing your "progressive" ideas do is to repress that - ala Sweden.

Right - "gun control" another "progressive" failure. Nearly impossible to legally own a gun in Chicago, much less buy one, and yet they are shooting each other up like there's prizes. The thing they just do NOT get is that criminals, by definition, do NOT CARE about laws, guns or otherwise. That's WHY they're, you know, CRIMEnals... making something MORE illegal will NOT change that. Enforcing EXISTING laws might... see also immigration...

@Readers- For anyone still bothering to read Anonymous's ravings, he/she/it claims that the batteries failed in the GPS units installed in the guns that were being handed out. This is, unsurprisingly, 99% untrue.

Try this instead: "we had no undercover agents following the guns. Indeed, when ATF agents' warnings that the guns couldn’t be tracked went unheeded, in despair at least one agent went to his local Radio Shack store to try jerry-rigging a GPS tracking bug for the guns. Unfortunately, the battery life for these self-made devices was too short to be of any practical use."

That's right - there were NO tracking devices to fail, until at least one agent tried to fake something together rather than be part of this insane, bloodsoaked scheme.

Or maybe I should just call it another "new progressive idea" which worked about as well as most of them do.

All proper, intelligent people should be carrying around insecticide to spray on these lice, lest they spread. Of course, cockroaches - one can do little about. Just give it the old college try anyway.

On a totally unrelated topic, I just read Robert Reich's rant about Walgreens being the latest corporation to flee the US for more tax-friendly shores. He starts out stating that because of this exodus, the US Treasury will be cheated out of almost a billion-a-year. Yet, at the same time he argues that it's "mostly rubbish" that US corporations pay more than other countries. If that's the case, then how is it that they'll be saving all these billions by moving to Switzerland?

To Mr. Anonymous: If the IRS behaved so honestly, then why did they destroy the e-mail? What was so incriminating that countless people risked jail to cover up?

Or is it that everyone involved knows there will be no jail for people covering up for this administration?

@John THe Econ: Because people who save a single broken hard drive for 3 years because "It could be useful later" are called hoarders. It was broken, which you may notice as something that is common in the office. As there was nothing on the hard drive worth saving, they disposed of it.

You may recognize this as "what every other office has done whenever a hard drive has failed since their creation". But oh! It could have had all the evidence that conservatives say exist but don't in any way, shape or form! So it was a COVERUP...that looked exactly like any other office routinely destroying broken equipment.

@Anonynous: Is that why the German Weapons act of 1938 - the largest increase of gun rights in the 20th century - allowed the Nazis who penned it to keep absolute and total power? Or why the armed-to-the-hilt Polish people were completely and immediately overpowered?

Also, free market never tried? What exactly do you call the system in place prior, the one that was the worst health care system in the developed world? Also, I notice how all the Regressives like to bring up in Obamacare - Premiums being raised, plans being dropped - are directly related to allowing businesses to act of their own accord without regulation, and them of course choosing to screw it all up for personal gain. Explain to me how there's not enough "Free Market" in that?

@Stilton: Thank you for using Fox News, an organization that has gone to court time and again to defend its right to lie knowingly to the American people to achieve their own agenda and then still call themselves a news organization.

But to address your point, yes, that agent thought that there was no GPS tracking on the guns. Which, if true, gives no reasonable explanation to how the ATF was able to follow a GPS tracker to bust a pair of gun smugglers attempting to cross the Mexican borer with 41 of the relevant firearms.

First of all, by law, they must keep their digital records including emails - RAIDs are usually used. It is nearly impossible to "lose" emails. Even if a hard drive is broken, data can be recovered from it. By law, they have to keep this information. They didn't. There is no doubt that it was a cover-up.

As for your bizarro examples of gun ownership, having a gun does not prevent tyranny particularly when you are outnumbered and out gunned. The Nazi example? The German people submitted their will to the Nazis, as the American people are now to the Nazi brethren, the so-called progressives like yourself. You scum. The example I used, if you bothered to look at it, was a book recently published about the importance of gun ownership to black Americans during the civil rights movement of the sixties - keeping away the progressive hoards of haters like the KKK.

The free market was NOT tried in health care. Restrictions across state lines (which restricts risk pools and causes price inflation), the use of tax incentives to cause employers to fund employee health care (rather than individuals buying it themselves which would have made the patient the customer, not the insurance companies), and the flooding of the market with tax funds (medicare/medicaid) also cause price inflation in the same manner that government money is driving up tuition prices far beyond the inflation rate for decades - all of this is government intrusion into the market place. You fool. Free markets allow pricing information, the most accurate information available about resource availability, to fluctuate as needed. Government interference restricts that.

If your term "regressive" means the people who base their opinions on a careful study of history, human nature, and facts, not the mythology of your kind, the masturbatory teenagers, I accept that label proudly. It means someone who looks back on what works, and what doesn't - they don't make it up like those, you, who want to make things progressively worse.

If I had the choice of not having a gun when faced with tyranny (meaning progressives) or having a gun, I would choose the latter. At least I would go down with a fighting chance. And if enough people have guns in the face of tyranny (meaning progressives), then we can defeat the tyranny. Are you familiar with the Mujahideen? Yeah, we gave them stingers but they were fighting progressives (Soviets) with a lot more fire power.

And the criminal element (progressives). Look at Detroit, where the police has urged people to arm themselves. When that armed criminal (remember, sport, they do not follow the law - they will ignore your gun control laws by definition) enters your home, do you want to be unarmed? I hope you are and that criminal has his way with you. One less moronic progressive, so-called, to deal with.

Damn, I turn my back for half a day and there are around 30 new posts. Can't even begin to get caught up in the conversation, but I will add this in respect to Grumpy's Cowboys and Aliens joke:A Socialist, a Muslim, and an illegal immigrant walk into a bar. The bartender says, "What can I get for you Mr. President?

@Anonymous: You mean like the experts they went to who said there was no way to save the data on the hard drives?

By the way, its only illegal if what regressives are saying is true - if it isn't, it was completely routine. So, regressives are asking that sane people completely and totally believe everything they say is true as their premise, in order to allow that this act was proof that what they say is true. Do you see the flaw here?

Yes, keeping away the KKK. Until Ronald Reagan enacted Gun Control in California specifically aimed at disarming African Americans. So I guess conservatives do believe in gun control, just as long as its only black people being disarmed.

Ah yes, that classic "No TRUE Scotsman" of "Not free enough"! Despite the fact that all problems and flaws in the system came from free market, if it was just a little freer then the magical power of wishes would fix everything and insurance companies would stop trying to screw people over by withholding payments when they needed them.

No, my term describes people who tell themselves that the stuff they think is based on history rather than just something they cling to because oft heir own small minded incompetence and shrieking "WITCHCRAFT!" at anything they don't understand. I'm aware of what you've been told you are, and I don't care what you think you are.

@Anonymous: No, if you had a choice, you would wholeheartedly support the fascists every step of the way because they gave you more guns. Just like the German people did.

@Anonymous: Congratulations. You found a scientific term. But see, the difference with regressive analysis is that it involves thinking about the causes, not just screaming "TAX CUTS! LESS GOVERNMENT! MORE GUNS! HANG THE PRESIDENT!" at everything without bothering to hear the actual situation first.

See, that's why 97% of scientists agree that conservatives are total morons.

Gosh, sorry for starting a flame war. My point was, I didn't vote AGAINST Obama because he was black, and he shouldn't be impeached 'because' he's black. Many people DID vote for him for that outrageously racist/collectivist reason - and he's certainly earned impeachment by every objective measure (none of them racist in nature).Mr. Anonymous, you're a dork.

People, please don't trash Anonymous The Troll, he's depressed because of turning 30+, still in his Dr Denton jammies, sip'n hot cocoa, snarfing down Cheetos, staring at the rapidly fading Hope & Change poster in his mommies basement. Honestly, he provides a public service - a walking, talking positive argument for mandatory birth control. Honestly, some people shouldn't breed.

@Grumpy Curmudgeon- No apologies necessary. Oh sure, it was fun to try to educate the troll for awhile, and then to taunt the troll, but now it's just turned sad.

He/she/it is making bizarre, unintelligible pronouncements, foaming at the mouth, and snapping at his/her/its personal fart bubbles in the hydrotherapy tub.

Idiots are amusing, but mental illness is just sad - and I'm pretty sure Anonymous suffers from the latter. Which is, perhaps, why he/she/it doesn't know their own name. Or frankly, much of anything else.

@Stilton: Yes, for a person whose closest encounter with anything resembling reasoned debate in his life was talking with a mildly retarded purple dinosaur for 3 years, I can see why your mind might be incapable of understanding what I'm doing, and would just think it resembles the things the nurses try to stop you from doing every night.

See, what I'm doing is called looking at the facts and presenting an argument. This is distinctly different t your preferred style, blindly regurgitate whatever half baked thoughts are up on the Drudge Report and Breitbart.com right now and smugly act like you've won.

@Anonymous: Like most people this Administration are counting on to carry the water, you clearly have no idea how e-mail works, especially in government and business environments.

The email did not exist on a single hard drive. E-mail in government & business is not stored on single hard drives at users desks. It is spread across multiple drives and systems all over the organization. Mail servers for even small businesses contain multiple drives where the data is redundantly spread across to prevent this very scenario. It is impossible to for an individuals e-mail to disappear by the failure of a single drive on a desktop, or even multiple drives...

...unless, of course, there was a concerted effort to make them disappear. Or if their IT people were just told to lie.

And that would be criminal. If any business, large or small were to respond this way to an IRS inquiry, that's how they'd be treated.

@John The Econ: And here we see the conservatives natural answer to a situation they don't know anything about - blindly say what they think it should be without ever checking on the reality.

Yes, most of the emails would be stored on the server - which would be why the IRS has delivered 77,000 emails that were recoverable. However, it is the IRS's policy that only 500 MB of storage would be allocated to each employees emails - a policy that has been in place for years - and if this cap was hit, older emails would be moved to the employees computers. Which, as we've already established, hit a computer crash that rendered that data unrecoverable.

So, for your conspiracy theory to make any sense, the IRS would have had to have been planning this conspiracy back when they made a policy of only allocating 500 MB's of storage space to each employees emails - in 2007.

Oh, and I forgot to add that IT professionals are literally paid to be "hoarders". For many, it's actually in the job description under "data retention and preservation". In fact, for many, it's a requirement by Federal law.

What you are basically arguing is that IT at the IRS is run by a bunch of people who couldn't even get a job at Geek Squad.

So which is it? Is the IRS criminally incompetent, or willfully evading lawful Congressional oversight?

Save it @Anonymous. I am an IT professional. So it just happens that I do know reality.

And if it's actually true that they only had 500 MB, (which I find very difficult) then it only confirms my latter argument that these people are criminally incompetent, and are in no position to be rendering judgement upon citizens from which they demand more.

@John the Econ: How many hard drives have you managed to recover data from where the magnetic layer has been scraped off by a fault in the read/write head? Oh, none, cause thats impossible as any IT professional will tell you? So you're accusing them of being incompetent for not being able to reassemble a hard drive via putting all of the data back onto the disk by hand. How reasonable and not at all completely insane.

And I do love how the mind of conservative works. "The IRS has TOO MUCH funding! Cut it all - they can work with a pen and an abacus. Wait - cutting back caused problems? This must be their fault, somehow!"

@John: The IRS paid barely $20,000 over 4 years for email backup services for an organization of 90,000 people. So, unless you're telling me that this service was meant to cover every employee's emails for 5 cents per employee per year, which would be charging about 1/1700 the price of competing email archiving services, there's really no chance that service would have backups of the emails in question.

If government were not so big, if we cut their budgets like crazy, get rid of moronic bureaucracies like education and commerce and so on, cut the IRS to nothing, then we wouldn't have had this massive assault on civil liberties and the subsequent cover-up by government lackeys in the pay of unions and Democrats.

Why the hell do people like you moron "progressives" have so much faith in bureaucracies? You hate business (and I certainly share a concern there but I will get to that in a moment) but you and your other moronic progressives like all things government. Government has been the source of persecution everywhere - You brought up your brethren Nazis earlier. Communists. Pol Pot, Stalin, and so on. Franco, Idi Amin, and so on. Obama and Lerner, Holder, and so on, to exaggerate the point to make a point.

The issue is the concentration of power. The IRS has it in spades, they used it to attack Tea Party Groups, and then they covered it up. By law, they have to have enough digital resources to keep their email records (and the IRS has plenty of money to do that - they do not need more money; they are criminally mismanaged if they cannot follow the law with their bloated budget - that is what you progressive loons always want to do - throw more obey at a problem - you have no ability to budget things - if the law is that specific, they should have budgeted for it). So the IRS violated the law one way or the other - they either had the data per the law and covered it up or the didn't have the data in violation of the law. Take your pick you moron.

@Anonymous, what you clearly don't seem to grasp is that e-mail doesn't exist on a single drive. In fact, in circles where security is of great concern, that is the biggest problem with e-mail. Just because Lois Lerner's hard drive took the big sleep (and coincidentally, practically everyone else's who are being investigated as well) doesn't mean that the mail doesn't exist. It does. That is, unless someone went to astonishing lengths to see to it that it doesn't. The fact that they say that it absolutely doesn't exist is the sign that there is fraud going on.

And I do love how the mind of liberal works! The IRS, like practically every other government agency is clearly incompetent and corrupt, so the logical solution is to give them more money. This is exactly why bad government never goes away; it literally gets rewarded for being bad.

The problem with government is rarely the lack of funding. It's lack of accountability for how they spend what they have. Interestingly, organizations that are defacto underfunded don't have these corruption problems. They can't afford to.

@Readers- I've got to admit that I'm enjoying the back and forth from the sidelines. And mind you, I'm only on the sidelines because this conversation is going so well without me.

And a personal note to "Anonymous" - why don't you pick a name for yourself (use the Name/URL radio button) to buy at least a little more credibility? When you take this site down with your brilliance, don't you want history to give you the proper credit?

Because I know in my heart that you are special. You're the only one - the only one like you.

@Anonymouseseses- Seriously, rather than clicking "anonymous" when making a post, just click Name/URL and write in whatever you like just to make communications easier and clearer. And, of course, makes you less likely to be confused with an asshole.

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